Summer Daze

As it has been yet another cold grey day, just thought I'd remind myself of bright summer days beside the garden pond.

The Bulldog Manifesto

Entertaining posting on Hugo Chavez can be found here!

The Bulldog Manifesto

t r u t h o u t - Hugh Thompson, Hero at My Lai, Dead at 62

It's always good to remember Heroes!

t r u t h o u t - Hugh Thompson, Hero at My Lai, Dead at 62

Seven Things sans Tag

Thanks for tagging me Martyn. Here’s my attempt at ‘7 Things’: The 7 books and movies were difficult to narrow down and would maybe read differently another day – the whole thing proved an interesting exercise in categorized spontaneity!

7 Things to do before I die:
Change my underpants
Enjoy myself
Visit Paris
Witness the successful prosecution of Bush and Blair for War Crimes
Learn the art of forgiveness
Retain my integrity
Give thanks for my life

7 Things I cannot do:
Swim
Drive A Car
Drink as much as I used to
Socialize for a prolonged period
Fall out of love with my wife
Understand the cult of celebrity
Understand the attraction of Sport

7 Things that attract me to blogging:
To share my thoughts
To share my diary - mundane as it may be
Allows room for creativity even when I haven’t the stamina to do other writing or painting
Keeps my friends in touch with me
Immediacy
Enables me to vent my frustrations
Provides me with a regular discipline

7 Things I say most often:
What a load of crap
James Blunt’s a real …. (varied expletives)
I adore you
I’ll just go and have another ciggy
Fancy a drop of wine
I feel knackered
This is the day the Lord has made … let us rejoice and be glad in it!

7 Books I love:
The Outsider – Camus
Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge – Rilke
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Tressell
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
The Crucified God – Moltmann
Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion
Joseph (aka ‘Friends and Lovers) – Maurice Capitanchik

7 Movies or TV Series I watch or would watch over and over again:
American Beauty
Shawshank Redemption
High Society
Coupling (TV Series)
Spaced (TV Series)
A Thing Called Love (TV serialised drama)
Jazz On A Summers Day

7 Bloggers who I’d like to have a go at this:
Here’s where I break with tradition – I can’t stand imposing even a hint of pressure. I’ll say the next seven bloggers who read this and fancy having a go – I’m much too lazy to delegate!
Let me know (leave a comment) if you’re prepared to have a go!

Adding Some Spice to a Grey Day

A day of idleness, one in which I even allowed my beloved to pop a frozen pizza into the oven, in lieu of a ‘proper’ meal. Heterocon has already recorded my vague entry into the day and, even as the day progressed, little has changed. My one piece of ‘work’, at the beginning of the evening, was to prepare a Mexican tinged minced beef and peppers casserole ready for our Sunday lunch. A preliminary tasting suggests a tongue tingling sharpness to the dish but, that will be tamed a little by the greens it will be served with.

Sudden sharp pains in both knees decided to make their presence felt as I returned from the kitchen but, otherwise, the days keynote has been a general relatively pain-free mind fog and, I have submitted to its demand of idleness.

A Confusion of Relevance

Yesterday evening we submitted the following Customer Service enquiry to ntl via e-mail on their ‘interactive form’:

“We are currently paying £10.50 per month line rental and £17.99 per month for 1Mb Broadband.

Whilst visiting your website we noted a VALUE PACK for Phone & Broadband including:

Unlimited local off-peak calls
1Mb Broadband

for an inclusive price of £24.99 per month.

Could you please switch us onto this tariff, as we don’t like to miss out on getting more services for less money, or would this change deprive us of the unlimited broadband usage promised from this month?”

The automated response assured us that the enquiry would be submitted to “the relevant ntl department”. A quite straightforward Customer Services enquiry I would have thought.

This morning’s reply, (for which I’m not criticizing their promptness), to our customer service enquiry, came from the ‘ntl Technical Support Bureau’ … I suspect this was not the “relevant department” … so, not at all unexpectedly, their message states:

“Unfortunately we are unable to process your request as we only handle internet technical support queries.”

Oh the wondrous joys of automated systems.

Climb every mountain

After much prompting and prodding from my beloved, managed to remove myself from the duvet realm in order to keep a dental appointment at 9.45AM! I’m not sure what is the most unnerving part of such occasions; the lights, the injections, the drilling or, the sonic cleaner (with its high-pitched whine). Each of the aforementioned items creates an ‘overloaded’ sensory experience but, I think, in this instance the sonic cleaner has to take the honours.

Hopefully, fillings and scalings completed, I don’t have to face this ordeal for another six months when the next routine examination is due. Everything, that I used to take in my stride, now feels like I’m undertaking an arduous expedition!

As I struggle to hit the appropriate letter on the keyboard, I intersperse the exercise with trying to find the location of my supra-numb mouth in order to sip a warm drink.

Methinks a rest is now in order.

Shared Pleasures

My adored one, last evening, went out to share a pizza and potato wedges with her friend Hilary at an underheated Pizza Hut … it’s the company she goes for! Meanwhile, poor lonesome me was like little boy lost; having first watched ‘A Seaside Parish’ and the following programme about a headstone carver, quickly realized there was nothing I really fancied watching on the goggle box.

The strange thing is, for all the backlog of DVD’s to catch up on, I couldn’t quite apply myself to the procedure. DVD & Video viewing can never be a solitary procedure for me these days; I would so miss the pre-emptive laughter and suspense (even the commentaries) proffered by my beloved. Part of the pleasure, the entertainment even, is the amazing gusto of appreciation that emanates from ma belle amoureuse. The contribution of these idiosyncratic responses is definitely on a par with those of l’auteur him/herself!

And For This I Give Thanks

This morning, I awoke after some seven and a half hours of intermittent hot-flushed sleep but, all too swiftly returned to a state of rib and limb aching stupor. Some eleven hours after retiring to bed, my beloved assisted my slow elevation into an appropriate position to manage a hot drink and a bowl of cereal.

Half an hour later, I managed to remove myself from the duvet lair and proceeded to the bathroom where, under the caring supervision of ma belle, I managed to enjoy a shower even though the subsequent towelling procedure proved a bit of an effort. It was a pleasant surprise to find that a further rest period was not required after this exertion.

Being the brave soul that I am, I eventually managed a brief brisk walk in the company of ma belle. At the present time I am feeling reasonably alert, ache free and, quite human. For this I give thanks!

A Relaxed Evening

It was really good to have Cathy and Ken as our guests last evening and, I was relieved that my stamina held out, after the earlier ‘cold flush’ attack. It proved a very relaxed evening, aided and abetted by a glass (or two) of “L’Escarpe” Pouilly Fuisse, 2004 and a Warburn Estate ShowReserve Shiraz, 2002. My past experience of the Shiraz and, the application of the women folk to its consumption, assured me that I was not proferring a dud, whilst the Chardonnay provided Ken and myself with a fruitfully smooth and long finished imbibing pleasure.

In these days, when my tolerance of alcohol ain’t what it used to be, I still manage to derive considerable pleasure from the bouquet and palate of a well-made wine, consumed in moderation. In the course of the evening, I even managed to take a piccy of Ken and Cathy in which Ken looked remarkably like a sultry early ‘60s (the calendar years, not the unattained age) Elvis. The digital result was achieved sans manipulation of the image. Even in the cold clear light of the following day, I can still observe photographic evidence of this resemblance … I refrain from publishing the piccy for fear of adding more grist to the “Elvis isn’t dead” mill. [You’ll just have to take my word for it, I’m afraid].